Demographics and admissions

As we talk to other people about our sons plans to go to medical school several people have mentioned that his demographics may hurt his chances of acceptance - middle class, caucasion, second generation of college. Is this really an issue that could overshadow otherwise qualified candidates?

@threebeans
White males are still accepted into medical schools at a higher rate proportional to the general population than any other category. See: [Applicants to U.S. Medical Schools by Selected Combinations of Race/Ethnicity and Sex, 2013-2014 through 2016-2017](https://www.aamc.org/download/321472/data/factstablea8.pdf)

The bigger issues for your son will be things like his home state residency and the strength of his application relative to his ethnicity & gender peers.

Medical school admission has become increasingly competitive in the past 10 years. For everyone. There just aren’t enough seats for all qualified candidates and even well-qualified applicants get rejected everywhere they apply. In fact, 60% of applicants get rejected every year.

Also remember that med school admission is more than just having the right stats. Admission is holistic and looks at a broad variety of competencies. See: [Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students](https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/admissionsinitiative/competencies/)

When male WASPS complain about discrimination…

@doctorgirl - I was not complaining.

I could be wrong - but aren’t more females than males applying to med school now? Certainly that’s the case with law school. Schools tend to want to enroll equal numbers of males and females. That means that the admit rate for females (overall, not delineated by ethnic demographic) might be lower than for males.

To answer OP’s question accurately: all else equal, a URM with equal stats to a caucasian will face better odds of admission. That holds at many elite undergrad programs and at many top professional schools (not sure about PhD programs, however). That doesn’t mean that URM’s in general face better odds because the former holds the qualifications constant and the later doesn’t.

Nope.

The number of female applicants (both first time and repeat applicants) peaked around 2005 and has been declining ever since.

[AAMC Analysis in Brief: The Changing Gender Composition of U.S. Medical School Applicants and Matriculants](https://www.aamc.org/download/277026/data/aibvol12_no1.pdf)

Still the skew isn’t as bad as it was in the 70s and 80s. Male to female applicants ratio in 2015-16 was 48-52. Matriculant male to female ratio was pretty much the same as the applicant ratio.

Ah. Interesting. Thanks for the clarification @WayOutWestMom. The numbers I found are 47-53 for applications and 48-52 for matriculations in 2015. No data on admissions, unfortunately.

https://www.aamc.org/download/445796/data/2015applicantenrollmentdatacharts.pdf

@JBStillFlying the difficulty I have with your answer is that the “all else equal” (eg ECs, applicant interview performance, PS, LORs, etc) will never be all else equal as to med school applicants. As one adcom on SDN often states, “your stats will get you to the door, but it’s the rest of the app that will get you through the door.”

@Jugulator20 if URM is a hook then the statement holds. However, we can look at it from your perspective of getting to the door. In that case - given the hook- the stats that get you to the door in the first place are going to be generally lower for URMs than for caucasians.